Value-Sensitive Decisions Made by a 150 Robot Swarm

In the video below, a swarm of 150 kilobot robots takes a value-sensitive decentralised decision between two options (red and blue). The swarm must select the best quality option if the quality is higher than a given threshold (in this study, greater than 1.5). In this experiment, the options have quality v=5 thus the swarm makes a decision for one option (in this case, the blue option).
The overlaying coloured circles show the two options localised in the environment. The options are signalled through two static kilobot robots acting as beacons that send infrared messages with the option’s ID and quality. The robots light up their LED in a colour that corresponds to their internal commitment state: green for the uncommitted state and red and blue for commitment to the option of the respective colour.